Robert Zaretsky and John T. Scott, authors' of The Philosophers’ Quarrel: Rousseau, Hume and the Limits of Human Understanding, answer questions about the little row between Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume.

The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History, by Philip Bobbitt:

For those who have always wondered exactly what the 20th century with its empire-building, world wars, nation-forming, societal upheaval, corporate hegemony and constitutional change was all about, this is the book to read, albeit with some caution, writes ROBERT ALLEN.

The debris from the Bush catastrophe lies all around us, in Iraq, Afghanistan, the ‘war on terror’ and the economic crisis. An immense cauldron of human misery. Experienced journalists, like Nick Cohen, should have seen through it all but, argues MICHAEL WAGSTAFF, instead lost their way and now shout insults into the darkness while safely tucked up in the cosy world of the columnist. In Review - What’s Left? How Liberals lost their way, by Nick Cohen; Democracy and Revolution: Latin America and Socialism Today, by D. L. Raby.

Five Irishmen describe how they took on the might of Shell, and the ostensibly democratic institutions set up to protect them, and won after a long campaign, which, writes MICHAEL WAGSTAFF, included a spell in jail. In Review: Our Story by the Rossport 5, by Mark Garavan, Willie and Mary Corduff, Micheál and Caitlín Ó Seighin,
Philip and Maureen McGrath, Brendan Philbin, Vincent and Maureen McGrath.

The 1953 coup in Iran that ousted the popular prime minister Mohammad Mossadegh was a setback for the country's political development and directly led to the bloodletting that followed, but, writes MICHAEL WAGSTAFF, reading some Western authors you wouldn't know how bad it really was. In Review: Iran Today, by Dilip Hiro and All the Shah's Men, by Stephen Kinzer.

Malalai Joya, the youngest MP in the Afghan parliament, and Tariq Ali, the Pakistan-born commentator, have much to tell us about the realities behind the so-called 'war on terror' writes MICHAEL WAGSTAFF.

Irène Némirovsky’s unfinished novel Suite Française, published 62 years after her death, is regarded as the literary find from the 20th century. It has fascinated critics and readers and, as more of her books are translated into English, prompted an inquest into the life of this Ukrainian-born Jew who perished in Auschwitz in 1942. ROBERT ALLEN looks at her latest novel translated into English and the first of two recent biographies.

Richard J. Evans’ trilogy on the Nazis’ Third Reich is predictable, writes MICHAEL WAGSTAFF, unlike Margrit Schiller’s Baader-Meinhof memories which asks the awkward questions that have no easy answers. Even today, decades after that Doris Day era, the history of post-war German history is still too sensitive for proper historical study. [...] Instead we find it more comfortable to write about the Nazis, because the script is unequivocal.

Events in Paraguay over the past 60 years have been the raw material for political thrillers but, MICHAEL WAGSTAFF writes, O'Shaughnessy and Diaz in their book on Fernando Lugo – the Priest of Paraguay – only tell part of the story. But you want to know about what's going on in this obscure South America state you'll want to read it.

"In Latin America there are no terrorists, only hunger and unemployment and delinquents who turn to crime," said General Rene Vargas in response to another US intervention on South America, where, MICHAEL WAGSTAFF realises, the Yanks' free market theories are no longer welcome.

Switzerland attracts tourists who marvel at its natural beauty and technological sophistication but the Swiss people aren’t as enamoured with their country, says ROBERT ALLEN. This book is an honest appraisal of modern Switzerland.

Sixty years ago despite opposition to his books from the establishment in Ireland, the Irish writer Walter Macken wrote his breakthrough novel, Rain On The Wind. Macmillan, Macken’s London publisher, decided to market his books as romantic fiction aimed at the Irish diaspora in America and Britain. It put the Galway-born novelist in a successful sub-genre of his own, but, writes ROBERT ALLEN, it never gave him the stature of other 20th century Irish novelists.

Jonathan Wilson’s history of soccer tactics, from 2-3-5 to 4-5-1, is a compelling and interesting book - it chronicles progression in the story of tactical changes and the people who made them since soccer became a professional sport. But, argues ROBERT ALLEN, it doesn’t tell the full story.

The long awaited English language translation of Ingar Sletten Kolloen’s biography of Norwegian writer Knut Hamsun, appearing during the 150th anniversary celebrations of the Nordlander’s birth, should have been a literary event to savour. Instead, writes robert allen, Kolloen's work is an assassination attempt on Hamsun’s multifaceted character.

Author, Bill Morgan, brings the American poet’s personal life into the public domain. His latest activity sees the publication of some of Ginsberg’s letters. ROBERT ALLEN reads them and looks back to the period of Ginsberg’s passing and the impact it had on those who believed they had witnessed the demise of a soaring comet.

From the forthcoming book, Imagining Ireland: Storytellers, Quiet Men and Scholars. Imagining Ireland, its people, traditions, the continuing transitions from the old to the new has been an intellectual pursuit since the 11th century. By the 20th century, a rustic, primitive image of a poetic people whose lives are ordered by old ways had hardened into a modern literary tradition. It was an image that was hardly ever authentic. We had suddenly been alienated from our own culture; our voices were stilled.

Reclamation in the Face of Globalization - an introduction to the work of Chellis Glendinning: Chiva is a book about community empowerment in the face of the most vile intertwining of greed, government complicity, and corporate development one can imagine.

"Once art becomes part of the mainstream it is no longer art, it is a commodity, something that has to have a value. The images, stories, songs and artistry of the corporate world are manufactured items that serve a function for commerce, they do not and never will be mistaken for creative art."